


Evolutions in Name-Calling

by missmagoo



Series: schmoopy kidfic nonsense 'verse [4]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Adoption, Family Feels, Gen, Growing Up, Kid Fic, M/M, Stilinski Family Feels, Unconventional Families
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 07:24:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3111134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmagoo/pseuds/missmagoo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or: Five times Derek had a conversation about what his boys are supposed to call him, anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Evolutions in Name-Calling

Stiles smiles as he enters the kitchen.

Brucie is standing on his chair, booster seat kicked to the floor (which is his new preferred dining posture), bouncing happily in his nighttime pull-ups as he sticks a mini pancake into a puddle of syrup and lifts it drippily to his mouth.

SJ, who’s still rocking his fleece Spiderman footie pajamas even though it’s April and arguably too warm for him to be sleeping in them, has his brows furrowed as he concentrates on mixing fruit (possibly blueberries. When did they get blueberries?) into what Stiles assumes is the next batch of pancakes, his motions slowing as Derek reminds him to do it gently so he doesn’t over-mix the batter.

And Derek is manning the skillet. In nothing but an over-worn pair of sweatpants and an apron. Stiles approves.

“Dada!” Brucie shrieks, raising his syrupy hands in the air excitedly when he spots Stiles, “Dewuh mah pancah!”

Which Stiles, who is fluent in _‘toddler with a full mouth’_ correctly interprets as “Derek made us pancakes.”

“Oh hey!” Derek says, alerted to Stiles’ presence by Brucie’s greeting. He has a little bit of flour in his right eyebrow. It’s unfairly adorable. “We were trying to make you breakfast in bed. For your birthday. I guess we took a little too long, huh?”

Stiles can’t help the shy smile that overtakes his face. It’s been a really long time since anyone’s done something that thoughtful for him.

He says, “I think I like this better anyway, watching all my favorite boys toil away to make me breakfast.”

Derek breaks away from the stove for a minute to usher him into a chair and give him a glass of orange juice. “Happy Birthday.” He says before kissing him

“Yeah, Happy Birthday, Daddy!” SJ echoes brightly, “Mr. Hale, are these ready yet?”

Derek rushes back to confirm that yes, the blueberries are the perfect amount of mixed into the batter.

“HAPPYHAPPYHAPPYBIRFDAAAAAAAAAAY!” Brucie screeches, sugar-high and slapping a palm directly into his syrup. He grins broadly, and a fat drop of syrup and pancake crumbs drips off his chin and down his bare chest.

“Thanks, Brucie.” Stiles says, laughing through his grimace at his almost-three-year-old’s appalling display of table manners.  “It’s a good thing Derek didn’t get you dressed yet, my man. Because as soon as breakfast is done, I think it’s straight to bathtime for you.”

“Noooooooooooooo!” Brucie whines, running sticky hands down his face. “Derek, tell Dada Idunwanna bath! I wanna play outside!”

“You’re supposed to call teachers Mister and Missus, Brucie!” SJ scolds.

“Hey, it’s ok.” Derek says calmly, “Brucie’s just repeating what your dad calls me. It’s fine.”

“It’s NOT fine!” SJ pouts, stomping his foot. “How come Brucie gets to call you Derek and I still hafta call you Mr. Hale?”

Derek sends Stiles a pleading look but, despite sensing that his five-year-old son is moments away from a full blown tantrum, Stiles really has no idea what to do here. Stiles and Derek stare helplessly at one another as SJ’s lip wobbles and fat tears start forming in his eyes.

“It’s not FAIR!” SJ cries, “Brucie’s just a baby! Why does he get to call you Derek and not ME?”

“Buddy!” Stiles says, rushing out of his chair to scoop up his kid, “Sweetheart! Calm down for a sec. Let’s talk about this. You want to be allowed to call Derek by his first name? Is that what’s going on?”

SJ nods furiously.

“Ok.” Stiles says, “Let’s think it out, alright? So why do you call Derek Mr. Hale?”

“Cause,” SJ hiccoughs, “Cause he’s my teacher, an’ school says we hafta call teachers Mister and Missus.”

“Right. Ok. So we have to obey the rules at school, right?” Stiles says, as he furiously tries to think up a solution. “Alright, but sometimes there are rules at school that are different from the ones at home, right?”

SJ nods.

“And Derek at home is pretty different from Mr. Hale in the classroom, right?” Stiles says

SJ nods again. And Stiles blows out a sigh of relief, because he’s figured out how to fix this.

“Ok, so how about this: As long as you promise you’ll keep saying Mr. Hale when you’re at school, you can call Derek by his first name whenever we’re at home or out together as a family. Can you do that?”

“Yeah.” SJ agrees. His voice is still a little watery, but the meltdown seems to have been averted.

“And are you ok with that, Derek?” Stiles asks, even though he doesn’t really have to because he can see the gratitude and relief in Derek’s eyes as he watches.

“Absolutely.” Derek says, “That is one hundred percent ok with me.”

“I’m hungry.” SJ complains, wriggling about until Stiles takes the hint and puts him down. He marches to his seat at the table, meltdown apparently forgotten.

“Well, alright then.” Derek says. “Let’s have breakfast.”

 

* * *

 

“DAAAAaaaaaaaAAAAAAD!” Brucie whines in what Stiles and Derek secretly call Brucie’s “I’m tattling” voice.

Derek’s head darts up to look for Stiles. The boys are staying a bit late at school with Derek, who’s catching up on some paperwork, while Stiles is at an important meeting with a publisher in San Francisco. He shouldn’t even be back until tomorrow.

Instead of Stiles, he looks up to find that Brucie is staring expectantly at him.

Oh.

 _He’s_ ‘Dad’?

“SJ stole the green marker while I was still using it!” Brucie starts to complain.

“He was using it to draw noses!” SJ says, “And I needed it for my grass.”

“I can draw green noses if I want!” Brucie defends, “And I was still using it!”

The bickering argument in need of Derek’s intervention puts him back on familiar ground.

“SJ, did you ask your brother for the marker before you took it?” Derek says.

“No.” SJ admits sulkily.

“Then give it back. You can ask for it again, _politely_ , in five minutes.” Derek says before returning to his work.

His mind is still reeling a little over the fact that Brucie called him ‘Dad’ when he drives them all home half an hour later. He and Stiles had gotten married a few months ago, and the adoptions have been finalized so technically, _legally_ , he is the boys’ dad.

But the boys still call him Derek pretty much exclusively (when he isn’t “poo-poo head” for enforcing bedtime or “The Princess” waiting to be rescued in a tower while the boys played knights versus dragons, at least), and they’d never exactly sat down and talked about what the change in legal status meant, whether it changed anything about Derek’s day-to-day relationship with the boys (like, you know, whether it meant them actually calling him _Dad_ ).

Still, the boys aren’t acting like anything is wrong, and Derek doesn’t want to embarrass Brucie if it was just a slip of the tongue.

 

The next morning, he’s getting dressed in the bedroom he and Stiles share, when SJ roars from the kitchen, “daaaAAAAAD! We’re hungry!”

He wanders into the kitchen to find SJ and Brucie fidgeting impatiently at their places at the table.

“You know Stiles doesn’t get back til tonight?” He asks, just to check.

“Uh-huh.” SJ confirms, “Can we have pop-tarts?”

He gives them the unfrosted kind (too much sugar in the morning tends to make them crash before they get to lunchtime) and herds them off to school.

When Stiles gets home that night, (following, of course, the chorus of “Hi Dad!” “Missed you, Dad!” “Did you bring us anything, Dad?” that greets Stiles at the door) Derek decides to talk to him about it.

“This is weird,” He says, when he and Stiles are alone in bed together, the boys safely asleep upstairs, “But the boys kinda started sporadically calling  me Dad while you were away.” and then he describes the incident in the classroom, and the time that morning, and when he’s finished, Stiles kinda laughs.

“Yeah, they’ve been doing that for a while.” He says.

“Doing what?” Derek asks, because he’s honestly not sure exactly what’s been happening.

“Using ‘dad’ as a catchall term for either one of us.” Stiles clarifies, “Like, when they’re talking to you, or they specifically want you and not just a parent in general, they’ll still call you Derek, but if either of us will do?” He shrugs, “We’re like the dad-squad, just a holler away. I thought you’d realized that?”

“No.” Derek says, “How long have they been doing that?”

“I dunno, like a few months, maybe?” Stiles says, “It started some time before we got married.”

“Huh.” Derek says.

“Does it bother you?” Stiles asks, sitting up to look at Derek.

“No!” Derek says, “Of course not. It was just - Yesterday, in the classroom, was the first time when either of the boys said ‘dad’ and I knew they meant me. I dunno, it just kinda felt like a big deal, I guess. Like, it’s one thing to know I’m their dad, to do all the dad things, and a totally different thing for them to actually say it out loud.”

“They call you their dad all the time, you know.” Stiles says, quietly.

“I didn’t, actually.” Derek confesses.

“Yeah, when they tell the other kids on the playground ‘my dad could beat up your dad’, they aren’t talking about me.” Stiles teases.

“They could be!” Derek protests, “You like to hide it under those ugly plaid shirts of yours, but you’re pretty strong!”

“You love my ugly plaid shirts!” Stiles says

“I love the man wearing them.” Derek allows.

“I love you, too.” Stiles says, “And so do those knucklehead kids of ours.”

 

* * *

 

Derek sends off the last of his kindergarteners at after-school pickup with a wave, and heads over to the gym where the older students have dismissal to round up his wayward sons. They generally prefer hanging out with their friends in the dismissal line to waiting around in Derek’s classroom, and Derek can’t really blame them.

He finds SJ deep in conversation with his friend Terry Milford, who was in SJ’s (and therefore Derek’s) Kindergarten class. He’s a nice enough kid, even if he does have (if Derek’s memory serves) a somewhat overbearing mother.

“Oh man, that sounds awesome!” SJ enthuses, “I just gotta ask my dad first!”

“Ask me what?” Derek says, startling both boys a bit.

“Hi, Mr. Hale.” Terry says, in that awkward way all his former students have of greeting him when he’s not in ‘teacher’ mode.

“Derek!” SJ says, grinning brightly, “TerryaskedifIcouldstayovertonightandhismomalreadysaysyesaslongasyousayyesand--”

“Slow down.” Derek says, “What are you asking?”

“Terry asked me to spend the night at his house!” SJ says, still visibly excited, “He just got the brand new playstation, and we’re going to play all the new games! His mom already says yes, but she says you have to say yes, too! So can I?”

Derek sighs. “I have to talk to Terry’s mom first.” He says.

He follows the boys out to Mrs. Milford’s car, which she’s parked in the lot so as not to disturb the carpool line.

Mrs. Milford rolls down the window as he approaches. “Mister Hale!” She says flirtatiously, “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I’m SJ’s dad.” He says, “He said something about a sleepover with Terry? I wanted to double check with you first.”

“SJ’s fath-- I’m sorry, I could have sworn SJ’s last name was Stil-something--”

“Stilinski.” Derek corrects

“Of course, and that his father was that man with the buzzcut and the plaid.” Mrs. Milford finished.

“That would be Stiles, SJ’s other dad.” Derek says, then adds (perhaps a bit pointedly), “My husband.”

“Right.” Mrs. Milford says faintly, eyes raking over Derek in obvious disappointment. “Right, of course.”

“So this sleepover?” Derek says, trying to get them back on track, “SJ doesn’t have anything packed. If you’d like, I could take him home first and have him pack some things--”

“Don’t be silly.” Mrs. Milford says, waving him off, “We have spare pajamas, spare toothbrushes, spare anything a growing boy needs."

“Alright.” Derek says agreeably, “Then it’s fine with me as long as it’s fine with you.”

They trade numbers, and Derek gets the Milford’s address, and he gives the boys a thumbs up.

They whoop and high five and rush toward the car.

“Thanks, Derek!” SJ says, hugging him before climbing in after his friend.

“Dude, it’s so weird that you call your dad by his first name.” Derek hears Terry tell SJ as the door closes. The car drives away without Derek hearing SJ’s response.

 

Stiles offers to pick SJ up the next morning, showing belated sympathy for Derek after laughing at him mercilessly when Derek had come home towing Brucie (who was feeling grumpy that HE didn’t get to go to a sleepover) and described Mrs. Milford’s unwelcome flirting.

“Gotta stake my claim.” Stiles teases as he heads out the door. “I’m the only parent of a former student who’s allowed to get all up in Mr. Hale’s business.”

Brucie yells, “GROSS! Ugh!” and turns up the volume on his video game.

“You’re terrible.” Derek says, rolling his eyes.

“Uh-huh.” Stiles says, grinning unrepentantly.

“But just to be clear on this rule you’ve just laid out, parents of _current_ students are A-OK to get up in my business?” Derek asks with a smirk.

Stiles’ grin melts away into an exaggerated expression of offense.

“Go pick up SJ.” Derek says, shoving him lightly towards the garage, “You can spank me for my bad behavior when you get back.”

 

SJ’s in a terrible mood when he gets back, and Stiles is clearly fed up with him when they walk back in.

“Hey, bud.” Derek greets as SJ trudges through the kitchen towards the living room, “Did you get any sleep last night, or did you spend the whole night on Terry’s playstation?”

“Fine.” SJ replies, nonsensically, before dropping his schoolbag on the floor and face-planting on the couch.

“He upset about something?” Derek asks Stiles. Stiles waves a dismissive hand.

“Upset, overtired, starting puberty. I don’t know what’s going on, but I have been informed in no uncertain terms that my questions on the matter are not welcome.” He says, clearly irritated. He sighs, and sinks down in the chair across from Derek.

“Sorry.” He says, “I know I shouldn’t let it get to me, but that kid used to tell me everything. Did I ever tell you about how when he was four he actually used to tattle on himself?”

Derek huffs a laugh, because even though he’d missed that particular phase in SJ’s development, he can picture it so clearly. He’s always been such a serious kid, very rule-oriented, which contrasts with (or perhaps inspires) Brucie’s utter love of chaos.

SJ’s impromptu nap lasts a few hours later, as he impressively sleeps through his younger brother’s attempts to wake him by turning up the volume on the tv, stacking throw pillows on top of him, attempting to stick his hand in a warm bowl of water (Derek thankfully averted the attempt - urban legend or not, he doesn’t want to risk it), and drawing on his face with magic marker. Derek lets this one slide out of gratitude that a: Brucie isn’t using a sharpie, and b: Brucie isn’t drawing penises. When SJ wakes to find half a handlebar moustache and a crude monocle drawn on his face, Stiles laughs so hard at the sight he falls out of his chair.

“Why didn’t you stop him?” SJ yells as he runs to the bathroom to scrub his face.

“There’s consequences to falling asleep with your shoes on, buddy!” Derek calls after him, “Better you learn that now than when you get to college!”

“Derek Hale! Are you secretly a frat boy?” Stiles asks gleefully.

“No, but I had roommates who were.” Derek says, “And I got dragged to enough frat parties to know Brucie let SJ off easy.”

It’s probably bad parenting to laugh this much at their children pranking one another. Derek and Stiles do anyway.

Once his face is clean and he’s accepted a grudging apology from Brucie, SJ’s nap seems to have put him in a better overall mood, but there’s clearly still something bugging him.

 

It comes out after dinner, when they’re picking a movie to watch.

“Is it weird that Brucie and me still call you Derek?” SJ asks, out of the blue.

Derek frowns. “Why would it be?” he asks.

“Yeah, it’s only his _name_ , dumbass.” Brucie calls from the other side of the couch.

“Hey! Watch your language you little shit!” Stiles scolds, flicking Brucie’s ear.

“Shit’s worse than dumbass.” Brucie counters.

“Yeah? Well I’m not in elementary school.” Stiles says, and Brucie frowns, unable to think of a comeback.

Derek ignores their bickering, keeping his focus on SJ, who seems to be carefully weighing his next words.

“It’s just, we never call Dad ‘Stiles’, but we call you ‘Derek’ all the time. Terry says if you were really my dad I wouldn’t still call you Derek, I’d just call you Dad.” He says.

“Well if you only ever call me Dad when you already call Stiles Dad, we’d get caught in an endless loop of _Dad, no not you, Other Dad_ and it would get confusing really quickly.” Derek says, trying to keep it light.

“I guess.” SJ says, but he doesn’t seem settled.

“Look, bud. I’m your dad, really. What you call me doesn’t change that. Stiles and I are your parents, and we love you, both of you, no matter what names you give us.” Derek says, “When Stiles and I got married and I adopted you two, you were both already so comfortable calling me Derek that we just didn’t see any reason to change it. But if you feel like it’s something you want to change now, we can talk about it.”

“But what if you and Dad get divorced?” SJ asks, very quietly.

Stiles’ head whips around as he squawks, “Why on earth do you think Derek and I would get divorced?”

“Sometimes it happens.” SJ says, “Terry told me that his cousin Tracy used to have a stepdad, but then her mom divorced him and now he’s gone and Tracy never sees him or talks to him anymore.”

“That’s not gonna happen.” Derek says, “That’s what adopting you guys was all about. You’re my sons in every way that matters, and there’s no getting out of that. There is no force on this earth short of dying that would make me stop seeing you and talking to you, ok?”

“Derek’s not going anywhere, kiddo.” Stiles says, hugging him, “And neither am I and neither is your brother. We’re your family, bud. You’re kinda stuck with us.”

“You divorced my mom, and I never see her or talk to her.” SJ says, and Stiles stiffens.The boys’ mothers are a sore spot that Stiles has never quite gotten comfortable navigating. He doesn’t want to lie to his boys or get their hopes up, but he doesn’t want to ruin any chance they have at a relationship later in life. It’s not often the boys put Stiles on the spot like this about Malia and Heather, or even mention them at all, but it never fails to stop him in his tracks.

Derek rests a soothing hand on Stiles’ arm, and says to SJ, “That was Malia’s choice. Not Stiles’, not mine, not yours. She made that decision a long time ago. It wasn’t because of you, and it’s nobody’s responsibility but hers.”

Brucie wriggles his way into the group hug Stiles started, and chimes in, “My friend Abby’s parents got divorced, and now she has to do something called _alternating weekends_.”

“Well that sounds like a hassle.” Stiles says, “Tell you what, instead of that, how about me and Derek just stay married forever?”

“Ok.” Brucie says easily.

“That sound ok to you, SJ?” Derek asks.

“You promise you’re not gonna leave?” SJ says.

“Pinky promise.” Derek replies, and solemnly offers his pinky. “You’re my boys, forever and ever.”

“Forever and ever.” SJ repeats, linking his pinky with Derek’s and shaking.

 

* * *

 

“Hey there, Daddy, can I ask you something real quick?” Bruce asks, plopping himself down on the couch next to Derek, who had been reading peacefully for the last half hour. Bruce is smiling too wide at him, eyes shining with carefully affected innocence.

“No.” Derek says firmly.

“No I can’t ask you something?” Bruce protests.

“No as in whatever you’re about to ask me,” Derek says, “the answer is no.”

“You don’t know WHAT I was gonna ask.” Bruce says.

“Don’t have to.” Derek says. “Whatever you’re about to ask me, you already know the answer.”

“Wha-- that’s ridiculous!” Bruce protests.

“Mhmm. You know what’s ridiculous, is that you’re fourteen years old and you’ve had the same tell since you were seven.” Derek says, calmly turning the page of his book.

“Tell? What tell?” Bruce says, and Derek puts down his book to look at his son.

“You only call my ‘Daddy’ when you’re trying to butter me up.” Derek says.

“I do not!” Bruce protests.

“I want you to tell me one time, in your whole life, that you have called me Daddy when you haven’t been about to ask me for something that you knew, unequivocally, I was going to have to say no to.” He says calmly.

Bruce is sullenly silent.

“So out with it.” Derek says, “What’s today’s ungrantable request?”

“Mindy Callahan’s birthday party.” Bruce says, “She’s the most popular girl in school, and she invited me, and I really, really, really want to go!”

The request doesn’t actually sound unreasonable. Derek is suspicious.

“What’s the catch?” He asks.

“It’s this weekend?” Bruce says, turning on his most pleading, pitiful eyes, fingers laced together in a begging pose beneath his chin. And yup, there it is.

“Tell you what, I’ll cut you a deal.” Derek says, “You accept my no right now and never speak of this again, and I won’t break Stiles or your Granddad’s hearts by telling them you tried to skip out on Granddad’s annual fishing trip.”

“But _Derek!_ ” Bruce whines, “It’s the first big party of my high school career! Everyone’s gonna be there!”

“Everyone but you!” Derek says cheerfully.

“I don’t even _like_ fishing!”

“Tough, your Granddad does. He’s your only living grandparent, and he loves you, and you will hate yourself later in life if you don’t spend quality time with him while you’re still a kid.”

“ _Technically_ Heather’s parents are my grandparents.” Bruce says defiantly.

Derek levels a look at him, calling bullshit. Heather’s parents hadn’t spent any time with any of them since Bruce was a baby and Stiles had given them an ultimatum -- they could either be loving grandparents to both his sons, or neither, but they weren’t allowed to come around if they were just going to fawn over baby Brucie and leave SJ to feel neglected. Heather’s parents had chosen neither, and, according to Stiles, had seemed kind of relieved to have an excuse to bow out of Brucie’s life.

John Stilinski, on the other hand, has been an amazing grandfather to both boys, and his annual fishing trip with his grandsons is the highlight of his year. Derek knows all too well how easy it is to take for granted the people that love you when you’re a teenager and on the cusp of being ‘cool’, but he also knows the regret that can follow it. He’s more than happy to play the bad guy if it keeps his son from making the same kinds of mistakes he did as a kid.

“Ugh. Fine.” Bruce says, clearly getting the message that Derek won’t change his mind, and starts to slump out of the room.

“Oh, and Brucie, one more thing!” Derek calls, Bruce turns back sulkily, “If you try and go over my head and guilt your Granddad into letting you out of this trip? You’re grounded for a full month. Including Mindy’s party.”

“You’re the worst.” Bruce declares.

“Love you, too!” Derek calls, as he picks his book back up and resumes reading.

 

* * *

 

They’ve been at the hospital for hours, and honestly, Derek’s nerves are starting to get a little fried from trying to keep Stiles calm when SJ finally comes bursting breathlessly into the waiting room and announces, “She’s here!”

He takes them back to meet her, ten perfect little fingers and ten tiny little toes, all snuggled in the hospital blanket. SJ’s wife, Caroline, looks weary, but despite it, she’s positively radiating joy as she passes the little bundle to SJ.

He makes his way from Caroline’s side over to where Derek and Stiles are standing, moving carefully as he cradles his baby girl in his arms. Derek wraps an arm around Stiles’ waist, attempting to ground them both as they look at their granddaughter’s face for the first time. Stiles lifts a careful hand to cup her head, and Derek raises his free hand to gently wiggle her little foot through the blanket.

Stiles sniffs wetly after SJ tells them her name, and Derek holds him tighter. Then SJ addresses his daughter and says softly, “Claudia, these are your grandparents. That’s your Granda,” He turns her in his arms so she’s looking right at Stiles, then he twists so she’s looking at Derek, before saying, “And that’s your PopPop.”

“I used to call my grandfather PopPop when I was growing up.” Derek says, awed that SJ already has a name picked out for baby Claudia to use, just for him.

“Yeah.” SJ says, “You told me and Bruce a lot of stories about him, when we were kids. I thought you might want to continue the tradition.”

Derek pulls his son close, gently in deference to the tiny person he’s holding between them, and kisses his hair like he hasn’t since SJ entered middle school and declared himself “too old for kisses”, then he ruffles his hair, just to see the face SJ still makes on reflex every time he does it.

“Thanks.” Derek says, his voice heavy with emotion.

“Of course.” SJ says, “I love you guys a lot, and I know Dia will, too.” And the three of them stand there, cooing over baby Claudia, until Stiles makes it clear that it is definitely his turn to hold his granddaughter, and gently scoops her out of SJ’s arms and retreats to the armchair to sing her broken Polish lullabies he half remembers from his mom.

“Don’t worry about the lyrics, Claudia.” He assures her in a whisper, “Your great-granddad managed to remember them for your daddy and your uncle Brucie. He’ll remember them for you.”

Derek grins and shakes his head, before taking a seat next to his daughter-in-law and asking how she’s feeling.

“I’m good.” Caroline says, “I just - she’s so little. I can’t believe how little she is. She felt like she weighed about a billion pounds when she was inside me, and now she’s out and she’s just so tiny.”

“I wasn’t ready for it.” Derek admits, “How little she is, how fragile she seems. I’ve never been around a newborn before.”

“Of course you have!” SJ protests, “You raised me and Bruce!”

“Five years old is hardly newborn, knucklehead.” Derek says, “And Bruce was already two and a half when I met the three of you.”

SJ looks embarrassed, and exhausted, rubbing a hand across his face. “I always forget that you haven’t actually been my dad forever.” He says, “It feels like you have.”

“Well, I’m gonna keep on being your dad forever.” Derek says, “So hopefully that’s good enough.”

“You’ll do better than that.” SJ says, “You’ll be Dia’s PopPop right from the very start.”

“You bet I am.” Derek says, grinning.

The Sheriff and Brucie knock quietly at the door, smiling eagerly.

“The nurse said we could come back to meet the baby as long as we keep it calm in here.” John says.

“Dad,” Stiles whispers, “Come look at the perfect baby that my baby made! SJ and Caroline named her after Mom.”

John looks at SJ and Caroline with the same overwhelmed expression that Stiles had worn only minutes before. “You named her Claudia?” He asks, a little bit broken.

SJ and Caroline grin, and then SJ is nearly being bowled over as he’s wrapped in a Stilinski hug.

“I don’t think seventy-seven year olds are supposed to be this strong.” SJ says, clapping his grandfather on the back and holding on tight.

“You can blame your father’s damn kale for that.” John says gruffly, making Stiles grin smugly.

While John and Brucie are cooing over the baby, Derek asks the nurse to take a family photo.

“Cara, are your mom and dad still here?” SJ asks as they’re arranging themselves around Caroline’s bed, “I want a photo with everybody.”

They might be technically breaking the visitor rules, squeezing so many people into Claudia’s first family photo -- 2 parents, 4 grandparents, one great-grandfather, and an uncle-slash-godfather (plus Caroline’s brother and his family waving at the camera from her mom’s iPad) -- but Derek’s totally getting this shot framed.

He doesn’t know how he got so lucky, being able to call all these people family. He’s just grateful that he does. He grins at Stiles, and kisses him lightly.

“What was that for?” Stiles asks, smiling right back.

Derek shrugs, and says, “Falling in love with you is the best thing I ever did. _Granda_.”

Stiles smiles even brighter, and says, “Right back at you, PopPop.”

It’s a name Derek will be happy to have for the rest of his life.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Come play with me on Tumblr! [Wheee!](http://minervamagooglie.tumblr.com/)


End file.
